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Our Story: Our Past Life in our country hasn't always been like this. Our mother and grandparents have seen even more difficult times, when Cambodia went through terrible upheavals. You can read their stories here. Siep's Story 
Siep is the youngest in her family and she lived in this Samrong Tong area when she was a child. However back then, Cambodia was caught in a civil war. (The Khmer Rouge Communists were fighting against the government army.) Siep's family were stuck in the middle of this fighting. When Siep was just five years old and her oldest sister Seour was 17, their father was killed by a landmine explosion.
Seour: "We were four sisters and my parents so we were in a good family but we were still faced with the problem of finding food to survive. It was a chaotic situation. It was a period where people fled or escaped from one place to another - looking for a safer place. The economy at that time went down. To survive my father would go out to the forest during the day to look for anything - vegetables - to cook for dinner. Unfortunately he was killed by a landmine explosion. My mother became the head of the family."Just fifteen days later, an exploding gun shell killed Siep's mother. Suddenly the four sisters found themselves completely on their own. Seour: "I remembered that my mother and I went out to look for food to eat. We were travelling along the road. Many people said don't go far. 500 metres away from the village a shell exploded and my mother was killed instantly. So I brought home the body of my mother." The war had ended but the Khmer Rouge communists were now ruling the country. Siep and her sisters fled to another area hoping their situation would be better. But life was worse than before. The Khmer Rouge had harsh rules and people had to work extremely hard without getting enough food to stay alive. Many people died or were killed. Seour: "Our four sisters fled to another district in Kampong Speu province. I had a chance to look after my three sisters at that time. But after being there for one year they separated us and I went out to work on a mobile team. So I had to work very hard from day to night. My life became worse and worse. When I saw my three sisters I could tell they were living in a very poor situation, very poor conditions, and they were starving." 
Siep: "The Khmer Rouge soldiers forced us to work hard. We didn't have much food to eat. If we got sick there were no medicines. My sisters had to live separately so we couldn't support each other and we couldn't depend on each other. I don't want to say much about that period. It seems like I have very painful memories of that time."Seour: "My sisters were eating very small plates of porridge so I brought some rice with me. They complained that all they survived on were vegetable leaves. My second sister Narouen ate potato skins thrown away by the Khmer Rouge soldier. This poisoned her but she recovered." The Khmer Rouge controlled family life and where people lived. Seour was forced to marry in a group wedding ceremony and then separated from her sisters. (The Khmer Rouge split up families so children weren't living with their parents.) After four years, communist troops from Vietnam invaded Cambodia and liberated people from the Khmer Rouge regime. People returned to their old homes, and Siep returned to Samrong Tong with her sisters. Seour: "On the way back to this Samrong Tong district in May 1979, I was separated from my husband because of the shelling and bombs and fighting that was still going on. So in the end I came back by myself. All four of us were malnourished. Samrong Tong was completely different from what I left earlier. It seemed like there were more huts, also the road was really in bad condition. Some big houses, houses with roof tiles were burnt down, only small huts were left." Coming back to the village was a great relief. The sisters were together again and they could begin to rebuild their lives. Siep was 13 years old but, like many children at that time, had not yet started school. Later she did reach Grade four but finished school early to help the family work in the fields. Siep: "We didn't have any income after country liberation day 1979. We didn't have any money to make business so we just work day by day, hand to mouth." Some years later, Siep married her husband Dorn and they had three children - Veasna, Navy and Sarath. 
Siep: "The most happy time for me is when I got married to my husband. He could support me. He made sugar from palm juice and sold it in the market to buy food. He worked in the rice fields to produce enough rice for us to eat. We had some children and I could support my children."But after seven years, Dorn became sick. Siep and the family had no option but to sell land and cows to pay for his treatment. Siep: "We had cows, we had ox carts, we had some property to live on, but finally when he died all of these things were gone - they had gone out of my hands." It was a shock to the family when Dorn died. Siep managed to keep going with help from her sisters. However their situation was very difficult. They had much less land to grow their rice and there was only one adult to do all the work now. Fortunately World Vision began working in Siep's village in 1998 to help people improve their living conditions. Siep's family has really appreciated the improvements so far. Siep: "Before World Vision starting working in this community, compared to the situation now, there's a big difference. My rice field didn't have enough water to grow rice and we needed irrigation and a water supply but we didn't have a choice. Then World Vision started working here. They built up irrigation systems and dug canals to water to the paddies. They started a kindergarten. My children used to attend when they were young but now they go to public schools." Read Siep's full story Find out more about Cambodia's history Morn and Kea's story Morn and Kea have seen many changes in their country during their lifetime. 
Morn: "During the French Colonial period I was ten years old. I lived with my poor family. I had eight brothers and sisters. My father died when I was young so my mother was a widow. Our living condition was very poor at that time, so I didn't go to school. I helped my family, my mother. I just followed my older brother, going to the field and climbing up the palm tree. Our family produced palm juice, making sugar for selling." Morn: "In the Sihanouk regime, I was thirty years old and still with my mother, brothers and sisters. After one year I was conscripted as a soldier but I didn't know what group I was in. I didn't know who I was supposed to be fighting so I was a soldier for one year but I didn't shoot anyone at all." Morn: "Between the period of Lon Nol and the Khmer Rouge regime I saw a bomber dropping bombs. Near my house, I saw cows killed by the explosion. And one bomb dug deep into the ground but didn't explode. The Khmer Rouge soldiers asked me to dig it out and put it on an ox cart and transport it away from my house. I also saw the aeroplane that drops the gas tank that burns everywhere around the village and on the water as well." Morn: "During the Pol Pot time I had six children. All the family were separated. My wife and children all lived in different places. I remember I was asked to work in a construction place. A Pol Pot soldier forced me to carry corpses - dead bodies, people who died in the fighting. So another person and I carried those bodies to the pagoda. Altogether there were four people and we took turns to carry the corpses to the pagoda. There were a lot of dead bodies after the fighting. We just buried them in a grave at the pagoda. I worked for many days but nobody paid me. I wanted to escape away from that job, but I was scared that the Khmer Rouge would kill me." 
Kea: "I missed my husband and my children and I wanted us all to be together but we couldn't. Angkar ("the organisation") wouldn't allow this. I remember I packed a small amount of rice and sent it to my husband. He said he was very happy to receive that from me. I remember another thing, I missed my husband more than my children. This was because my children were looked after and provided with enough food to eat, but my husband didn't have enough to eat. So that's why I worried about him and missed him more."Kea: "I feel I am disappointed in life in my old age. If I look at other old people, it seems that when they become old they have a lot of money, a bigger house and more land. But for my family, I have nothing. All my children except one are gone, and all our property like rice fields, our house and even our clothes are sold, so we have nothing. My five children died, from one generation to another generation. One died in the Pol Pot time and another one just recently. I feel disappointed in my life and I feel very sad about my children and that's why I have a little bit of mental illness and I feel sick. When they were sick, we sold off some property, like cows and rice field, to buy medical treatment for my children. However, they left me. It seems like I am like a beggar. I just ask money from people who do some good charity toward me. I don't have much hope even that my grandchildren will live independently in the future." 
Read Morn and Kea's full story Find out more about Cambodia's history
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